Matchmaking: I Want to Help Fix It
mum_m2
Member Posts: 1,776 ★★★★
Wars are a huge money maker for MCOC. They encourage potion and revive usage, and the entire system is geared toward driving sales. It's perfectly fine for me, I manage my item usage as a mostly FTP player. But what happens when the matchmaking doesn't find us a match???
There's two ways I want to improve war matchmaking
Here's a quick back story: So my alliance missed a war due to matchmaking. It was revealed to me that the other alliance had been searching for 3 hours to find a match thus eliminating them, and us from finding a third war on Sunday evening/Monday Morning. This wasn't the first time I observed this; the previous time we matched against an alliance in the final minute before matchmaking would close when we both were searching for 45 minutes plus. We were fortunate as a group to get a war but never-the-less there are matches out there that we could potentially find, and yet we are not getting matched them them.
No someone is going to say "well you should start your wars earlier too bad for you." And before I call you some expletives for not reading my stance on that, read my stance on it. Yes we do start wars late, that's on us. It is our fault that we missed a war under the rules of the game. End of discussion on that so please don't make it a discussion about that, however, I feel that the system is broken and that there are matches out there that we could match up against, and we are not getting those matches. Furthermore, why should we have to start match making earlier? It's in our advantage to start wars later in that many of us are on different time zones. We enjoy that dynamic and have thrived in it.
So to quickly fix my first issue with match making is: To expand the matchmaking window by 3 hours. Instead of ending it at 7pm PST, end it at 10pm PST. There's a couple reasons for this
The second way, and this is under the assumption of one noticeable theory about how match making currently operates, is to change the algorithm for finding those wars.
So under this, if anyone says that they know how wars are found you're most likely wrong. No one knows for sure except Kabam. They keep this sort of thing locked up as if it's the recipe for Coca-Cola. I've observed some factors that drive matchmaking.
Rather than an algorithm, I'll just describe it as a range that's triggered by starting matchmaking (obviously but since I mentioned it as a factor I'll list mention it).
That's really it. Keep it simple. Whatever they have going on over there is not working. Too many alliances are disbanding and struggling to find wars because the system is simply not finding wars for us. Those individuals in those alliances are either finding a comparable alliance which doesn't affect Kabam at all, they are moving down which doesn't help sales, or they stay put which also doesn't drive sales.
There's two ways I want to improve war matchmaking
- Expand the time frame window as to when you can search
- Change the algorithm/range
Here's a quick back story: So my alliance missed a war due to matchmaking. It was revealed to me that the other alliance had been searching for 3 hours to find a match thus eliminating them, and us from finding a third war on Sunday evening/Monday Morning. This wasn't the first time I observed this; the previous time we matched against an alliance in the final minute before matchmaking would close when we both were searching for 45 minutes plus. We were fortunate as a group to get a war but never-the-less there are matches out there that we could potentially find, and yet we are not getting matched them them.
No someone is going to say "well you should start your wars earlier too bad for you." And before I call you some expletives for not reading my stance on that, read my stance on it. Yes we do start wars late, that's on us. It is our fault that we missed a war under the rules of the game. End of discussion on that so please don't make it a discussion about that, however, I feel that the system is broken and that there are matches out there that we could match up against, and we are not getting those matches. Furthermore, why should we have to start match making earlier? It's in our advantage to start wars later in that many of us are on different time zones. We enjoy that dynamic and have thrived in it.
So to quickly fix my first issue with match making is: To expand the matchmaking window by 3 hours. Instead of ending it at 7pm PST, end it at 10pm PST. There's a couple reasons for this
- Diverse alliances can plan better - The 8-9 window while match making is open is sleepy time for some making people completely unavailable for the end of the war. I understand the map is not that large but to best coordinate an attack and to fight at your best is how people should be playing.
- Wars give people enough anxiety as it is. So allow us to take our paths without the added stress of people not being able to finish.
The second way, and this is under the assumption of one noticeable theory about how match making currently operates, is to change the algorithm for finding those wars.
So under this, if anyone says that they know how wars are found you're most likely wrong. No one knows for sure except Kabam. They keep this sort of thing locked up as if it's the recipe for Coca-Cola. I've observed some factors that drive matchmaking.
- Tier - Always fighting an alliance +/- 1 of current tier.
- War Rating
- Time you start matchmaking
- Alliance Prestige/Rating - I'll comment on this in that it could be one or the other or both but this is one of those. Usually you're going to go up against an evenly matched opponent or close to one as possible. I was part of a 20 man alliance that was rated 800k and built it to a 1400 war rated alliance. We always fought alliances that fit into our mold and found that the higher we went, the longer it took for wars to match us. Lastly, this was implemented because people were complaining so much that even though their alliance had a similar war rating that they would get squashed by an alliance twice their alliance rating.
Rather than an algorithm, I'll just describe it as a range that's triggered by starting matchmaking (obviously but since I mentioned it as a factor I'll list mention it).
- Tier +/- 1 for the first 30 minutes. After which increases it goes +/- 2
- Rating +/- 50%.
- Alliances that begin matchmaking first have precedent - I've heard of situations where alliances were not getting paired at all even though other alliances were getting paired that were in the same bracket and tier.
That's really it. Keep it simple. Whatever they have going on over there is not working. Too many alliances are disbanding and struggling to find wars because the system is simply not finding wars for us. Those individuals in those alliances are either finding a comparable alliance which doesn't affect Kabam at all, they are moving down which doesn't help sales, or they stay put which also doesn't drive sales.
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Comments
We definitely appreciate this rather in depth take on how you would want to have the matchmaking system change in The Contest! We would love to see you elaborate more on what benefits this would create both on the more casual and hardcore side of things. Do you feel this would bring less people or more people in the competitive brackets? Would you want to see similar changes brought into the way Arenas get matched? Understand that we can't make any promises to direct changes to how the system itself works currently. We still are very interested to see what you have to say, and I'll make sure to forward your thoughts to the team!
Do you feel this would bring less people or more people in the competitive brackets?
Define Competitive Brackets? I play in two brackets. I play in a plat 2/3 alliance and then i play in a gold 3 alliance more casually. Both are pretty competitive. I think it's difficult to get out of the lower tiers of war because there's such a large pool of alliances scratching to get higher. But if your goal is to push people up then by giving an alliance more variety in terms of when they can start matchmaking supports that. Occasionally, alliances get a bad match up. We've had a couple this season and that's okay. I'll take a bad match up over no match up.
Would you want to see similar changes brought into the way Arenas get matched?
Arena is a completely different component to it, and while I want to really only focus on war matchmaking I'll provide my thoughts on Arena. If you want to improve arena, you have to not only increase challenge in arena, but also the interactions. Currently we are given 3 choices to chose from with one character shown. Why not a 4th choice with 0 characters shown and a random buff or two (maybe just for uncollected folks)? That would increase the PI of the champs they are fighting and award them more points for doing that. In terms of matchmaking - I think people have figured out how to get the "infinity streak" and for those starting out, it's just a matter of time before they build their roster up and get there. If a beginner gets matched up against someone 1.5x their rating they may struggle, where as an end game player will just breeze through that no matter what. I mean if Dorky Dave can win arena fights blind folded that kind of gives you an idea of how easy arena is to the end game player. it's not so much about the PI of the champ, rather it's more about the challenges that surround it.
https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/101768/developers-thoughts-improving-alliance-wars#latest
I’m glad to see ideas like this one. Its evident even to kabam developers that matchmaking system is flawed. However it doesn’t seem to be a straight forward solution or else kabam would’ve done it already.
Matchmaking system has been broken for a long time. It is specially evident and relevant to alliances in tier1 and 2 competing for plat1 and lower masters. It’s time for kabam to give us an update on what they are doing and timeframe to fix the evident matchmaking issues. As well as including community leaders and have ongoing discussions with the players rather than just do something that doesn’t include players feedback (we all know where this can go)
Anyways, extending the timeframe for matchmaking and expanding the search and shortening search times like suggested above seems easy enough to implement and its a step in the right direction while a more permanent solution is developed.